Spartacus (1960 Film) [SOUNDTRACK]

Alex North

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 14, 1991)
• Original Release Date: October 7, 1960
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Mca
• ASIN: B000002OGF
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #170,680 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Main Title

2. Spartcus Love Theme

3. Gladiators Fight to the Death

4. Blue Shadows and Purple Hills

5. Homeward Bound: on to the Sea/Beside the Pool

6. Hopeful Preparations, Vesuvius Camp

7. Prelude to Battle: Quiet Interlude/Final Conflice

8. On to Vesuvius: Forward, Gladiators/Forest Meeting

9. Oysters and Snails - Festival

10. Headed for Freedom

11. Goodbye, My Life, My Love/End Title

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Score But Not Complete, February 21, 2002

By	D. A Wend (Buffalo Grove, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

Listening to Alex North's score for Spartacus again after several years of not having a copy is a revelation. I had a copy of the LP version of the score and it is good to see the notes included in the booklet. Mr. North was among the best and most original film composers that Hollywood can claim. Yet, in spite of 15 Oscar nominations he received only an honorary award! His music is perfect for Spartacus evoking not only the passions of the characters but a feeling for the later first century BCE. My only regret is that the overture and exit music is omitted from the recording. It would be a far better disc if some additional tracks were lifted from the soundtrack and included here. As it is, the playing time is 40:32. This is a great CD that could have been better.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Score, Terrible Mastering, August 1, 2000

By A Customer

Too bad there's no score isolation on the Spartacus DVD because the mastering of the CD sountrack is absolutely terrible. Hiss abounds everywhere, instruments are blurred together--there's absolutely no separation. In a nutshell, this CD hardly sounds better than the LP, which is a shame, since it's one of the greatest scores ever. Fans of the score should know that the Criterion laserdisc of Spartacus featured various tracks which did not make it to the film. They were all absolutely beautiful. So just know that not only does Spartacus receive a painfully bad mastering, but also that there are quite a few unheard tracks rotting away in some studio vault, heard only by a few who bought the brilliant Criterion Collection LD set.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Roman military power, decadence, fantastic excesses., January 28, 2000

By	DJ Rix (NJ USA) - See all my reviews

With all due respect to Miklos Rosza, "Ben Hur" isn't far from the musical worlds of his "El Cid" or "King of Kings" scores. It's still Miklos. But North's "Spartacus" score has a truly pagan flavor, as does the film itself. Arming his orchestra with a wonderful array of percussion & an early electronic instrument called an ondioline, North captured the decadence, fantastic excesses, & especially the military precision of the Romans. He also composed a love theme of such delicacy that jazz musicians adopted it as a near-standard. Certainly, "Spartacus" is classic movie music, in a class with the best "modernist" scores by Bernard Herrmann, Jerry Goldsmith, Toshiro Mayuzumi, Ennio Morricone, & even Prokofiev.

Bob Rixon, WFMU